Only problem is that his study didn't include the downloads to sales ratio after the albums have been out. I'm not gonna dive head first into this, but all his research really shows me is that people are too impatient to wait til release day. That's it.

Someone that looks at this thread torrented a Journey cd recently, or Whitesnake, or what the hell ever that's old. They and 5,000 others have this week alone probably. You think Neal Schon or that cocky guy from Whitesnake saw any profit? Nah. All's I'm saying.

Its funny when Metallica first started they threw out tapes to the crowd for free, now look at Lars lol. I found many good artists from looking at pirated media, and would of never found out about them probably, so it does offer a mass advertising spectrum kinda. I would love to buy original CD's and DVD's but I just cannot afford it at all, so is being less fortunate an excuse for pirating? A good question. Many 3rd worlders make so little money, some would take a months salary to buy one video game. I think they should be able to enjoy these things as should everyone despite finacial situation. I see people who work in record stores say "oh sales are declining so fast these days" well they don't take into account that digital sales are booming and far exceeding physical sales. I don't mean to stir up anything here just like seeing what other peoples opinons are I've talked to people all over the world in some really harsh places like Lebanon, parts of South America and they pine for these experiences but cannot afford them at all or even home internet for that matter, I think they should be able to. I own about 10 DVD's of my favourite films, wish I could afford more and some Blu-Rays. One thing I know for sure that is by making pirated media more accessible to the average person is really pressuring the anti-piracy scene. Mind you this piracy scene is 30+ years and the last 5 have been the roughest by far! I think its human nature to do this...not that its right human nature has alot of bad things too!!

Its funny when Metallica first started they threw out tapes to the crowd for free, now look at Lars lol. I found many good artists from looking at pirated media, and would of never found out about them probably, so it does offer a mass advertising spectrum kinda. I would love to buy original CD's and DVD's but I just cannot afford it at all, so is being less fortunate an excuse for pirating? A good question. Many 3rd worlders make so little money, some would take a months salary to buy one video game. I think they should be able to enjoy these things as should everyone despite finacial situation. I see people who work in record stores say "oh sales are declining so fast these days" well they don't take into account that digital sales are booming and far exceeding physical sales. I don't mean to stir up anything here just like seeing what other peoples opinons are I've talked to people all over the world in some really harsh places like Lebanon, parts of South America and they pine for these experiences but cannot afford them at all or even home internet for that matter, I think they should be able to. I own about 10 DVD's of my favourite films, wish I could afford more and some Blu-Rays. One thing I know for sure that is by making pirated media more accessible to the average person is really pressuring the anti-piracy scene. Mind you this piracy scene is 30+ years and the last 5 have been the roughest by far! I think its human nature to do this...not that its right human nature has alot of bad things too!!

There's really too many grey areas with this topic, by pure nature. Should the joy of music be free? Yep. We all have the accessibility to music for free. Is it fair that record companies are making things ridiculously expensive? No.

BUT we gotta think about it like this:

Physical record sales are pitiful. Nobody cares about the hard work that goes into the production of most albums nowadays. The musical artists and the album artists both (for my types of music at least) work really hard to make sure the artwork is interesting. It becomes a part of the whole being that you've purchased. Audio, visual, sometimes even your sense of feel gets some benefit. But people don't care about how much work true artists put into their work anymore. There's no respect for that.

Even though internet sales like iTunes are up, that's not a real good thing. Let's take one of my favorite bands for example. The dudes in Lamb of God write their own music, their own lyrics, everything. That takes WORK. Non-musicians don't understand that. Some "musicians" don't even get that because they just want to be in a band and get poon and booze. They don't REALLY care about the artform of music. It's all piss-poor attempts to become "rock stars". But here's the point, for each physical CD sale, one of the guitar players gets 10 cents. A dime. $.10. For each album sale on iTunes, he gets about five cents. A nickel. The record company isn't the only one taking money from the sales, but when iTunes gets involved it's another chunk given to Apple.

It takes up to a year to write just the music for an album. Lyrics are written during that time. A month or two to rehearse everything and get it tight. Then another six months to actually record the album. And recording an album with such quality as we expect is NOT cheap.

Now, that I've gotten that out, let's put this in perspective:

You're a carpenter. You've spent years busting your ass and perfecting your trade. Someone asks you to do the cabinets for their kitchen. It takes you a year. You get done and they LOVE it. They can't compliment you enough for your great work and how amazed they are with it and how it compliments your fixtures. But what? You aren't going to get paid for your hard work? What the F***, man?

See what I'm saying? SAME principle.

I'm not bashing nobody, I just don't personally agree with illegal, free downloading. It hurts the artists who are really trying. And some people say, "Oh well. They can get a day job and just make music for fun." Yea, good luck getting a good album any sooner than every 5 years. We don't want that, do we? And now artists have to stay on tour cycles that last almost three years to make ends meet. When you do that, you get tired of playing music EVERY night and being away from your wife and child. Then BOOM! Band breaks up and you have no more records at all from your favorite band.

I bought more albums when Napster was around than any other time in my life. I'd download a couple songs from someone and they go buy the CD if I liked it.

With Pandora I dont buy hardly anything now. With everything digital, theres no point in having bunch of cds sitting around collecting dust.

Several years ago there was a 60mins story on teh Dixie Chics when they were popular. Basically it said for an artist or group to "make it" they gotta tour and sell out. The contract money gets eaten up pretty quickly in the whole process.